Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein tried to ban hit children's TV show Pokemon because his spies thought the name was too similar to the phrase: "I am a Jew".

Top secret documents captured by US troops in 2004 show that the dictator's agents were deeply suspicious of the Japanese children's TV, toy and video game phenomenon as it 'flooded the market' in 2001.

The General Security Directorate - a feared domestic security force - expressed concern to Saddam that some of the names of the creatures were deeply insulting in Syriac.

The note reads: "We have come aware of a phenomenon that spread quickly in the Muslim world and among our children.